Led Zeppelin Plays One of Its Earliest Concerts (Danish TV, 1969)

Here’s a great record of what Led Zep­pelin looked and sound­ed like in the first year of the band’s exis­tence. The date was March 17, 1969. The group’s debut album, Led Zep­pelin, had been out in Amer­i­ca for almost three months but would not be released in the UK for a cou­ple more weeks. Led Zep­pelin was on a tour of the UK and Scan­di­navia when they stopped by the TV-Byen stu­dios in Glad­saxe, Den­mark, a sub­urb of Copen­hagen, to play four songs from the new album:

1. “Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Break­down”
2. “Dazed and Con­fused”
3. “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You”
4. “How Many More Times”

Zep­pelin had only been togeth­er a lit­tle more than half a year when the TV show was record­ed (the band’s first gig, on Sep­tem­ber 7, 1968, also hap­pened to have been in Glad­saxe) but they sound tight. Some of the band’s trade­mark the­atrics are already in place, includ­ing Jim­my Page’s ethe­re­al vio­lin-bow gui­tar solo. Page is play­ing his clas­sic 1959 Fend­er Tele­cast­er, a gift from Jeff Beck that Page had paint­ed a drag­on on and used as his main gui­tar dur­ing his days with the Yard­birds. Only a month before this broad­cast, dur­ing Zep­pelin’s kick­off tour of Amer­i­ca, Joe Walsh had giv­en Page a Gib­son Les Paul. By the time Led Zep­pelin II was fin­ished, Page had switched to the Les Paul and basi­cal­ly retired the Tele­cast­er, though he played it on his famous 1971 solo in “Stair­way to Heav­en.”

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Jim­my Page, 13, Plays Gui­tar on BBC Tal­ent Show (1957)

‘Stair­way to Heav­en’: Watch a Mov­ing Trib­ute to Led Zep­pelin at The Kennedy Cen­ter

John Bonham’s Iso­lat­ed Drum Track For Led Zeppelin’s ‘Fool in the Rain’

Jim­my Page Tells the Sto­ry of Kash­mir